The Scrapbook

I know a lot of people would like to see the scrapbook I gave Trash so we took pictures of it tonight. I was just going to put up a few pages but thought I might as well put them all up (even though there are a lot). It might seem like a little overkill. It's mostly for my mom and sister ;) If you want to see the pages closer, you can click on the picture to enlarge it. Here we go.....

The Story

Okay. First things first. Yes, my fiancee's nickname is Trash. That is how she is known. No, she is not a "trashy" person. Her Korean name (which 90% of our friends don't know) has a very girly kind of meaning and she is not a girly girl, and a big difference between Korean and English names is that everyone knows what names mean in Korean. That being said, she has given me permission to tell people her real name even though she REALLY hates it.

What will surprise many is that she's been able to get away without divulging her name her in Korea very easily. Most Koreans have their legal, Korean name and an English name. The English names are not registered and can be changed at any time. That being said, signing documents with an English name you claim as your own is very common in Korea so she very easily signs credit cards slips "Trash" or "T-Rash" without any problem. However, much to her chagrin, I informed her that things don't work that way at home. First, she will need to sign things with her real, legal name. Plus, even people that are willing to call her by her nickname (which she LOVES) will insist to know her real name. Plus, while I call her Trash more often than not, I will not be taking vows to marry "Trash" at our wedding.

All this leads to the moment she has feared for years. Here it is, the international broadcasting of her real, legal name. It is "양정아." Hahahaha. Who is disappointed? I guess you need to learn to read Korean now.

On to the other thing people keep asking. How did I propose? Before that though, how about how I didn't propose? I was going to take her to the restaurant at the top of Seoul Tower (kind of like the Space Needle but overlooking Seoul). I made reservations, and the day before wanted to figure out if she had any idea it was coming. I mentioned something about having a special night at the Tower and she said that was so cliche and would be a terrible way to get engaged. Needless to say, when I go home, canceled the reservation and started making new, better plans.

Now, the final plan. In May, we had a long weekend for Buddha's Birthday (a national holiday here). We spent two of our three days off at Muui-Do, a small island off the West Coast. While we were there, we spent some time sitting on a boulder right on the edge of the Yellow Sea. It was while sitting on that boulder that, for the first time, we both said that we love each other. It was a pretty special moment for us so last Saturday, I convinced her to take the bus and spend the day at Muui-Do.

When we got there it was a little rainy and cold, but within an hour the weather cleared up and was beautiful. After relaxing on the beach for a little while, we walked down to the end of the beach and sat on our boulder (I actually picked the wrong boulder, but she corrected me. haha). We sat and talked for a few minutes, and then I told her that I had a present for her. It was a scrapbook.

I had spent the last two weeks picking about 300 pictures from the whole time we've known each other (I have MANY more). I got them printed and made her a scrapbook. It had all kinds of things in it, pictures, love notes she'd given me, ticket stubs, a caricature of us, etc. She was sniffling and fighting back tears the whole time. It took us about 20-25 minutes to look through the whole thing. Then she turned to the last page, and there was a picture of her ring with the words, "Will you marry me?"

At this point she started to cry for real. It as obvious that she was completely dumbstruck. Then she looked over at me and saw that I was holding the real ring in my hands (She later admitted that her first thoughts were, "Is he seriously proposing with a PICTURE of the ring he is going to buy me?!" haha). After about two minutes of her attempting to catch her breath, she turned and said, "Of course I will!" and that was it! We were officially engaged!

Then, the plan was to take some pictures to fill in the last page of the scrapbook. Unfortunately, my camera had turned on in my bag and the battery was completely dead so the few photos we took were with her cell phone (and people say camera phones are pointless!!).

After that, we didn't really feel like laying around on the beach so we headed back to Seoul to have some bbq and share the good news with everyone :)

Just Engaged :)

That's right. I got engaged in my Chacos.

...by the way. "양정아" is Yang Jeong-Ah. Yang (family name) pronounced yah-ng. Jeong-Ah (first name) pronounced Juh-ng-Ah ("ah" like when you realize something. ie - "Ah, I see." Not "Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I'm so scared!" hahaha. The "a" in Yang is pronounced the same way.). There. The secret is out for all the world to know :)

The Short Version

Well, as probably all of you have heard, I'm getting married. I will fill you in on details VERY soon.....pictures will follow ;)

Vacation - The Final Installment

First, sorry it's taken so long to put up these last two posts. Here is the last section of vacation. Pictures will follow soon........

We left Gyeong-Ju early early Wednesday morning. Thankfully, it was only a 45 minute bus ride to Busan, our final stop. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea, but it is MUCH smaller than Seoul, the largest. It's also Korea's busiest seaport/beach area. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel and headed straight for the beach. The waves were pretty big, but unfortunately, that meant we weren't allowed in the water. They weren't so big by American standards but big enough here in Korea.

We hung out on the beach for a while and then went back to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner. Trash had never been to TGI Fridays, and they are currently having their three-course meal deal. I hated that while I worked there, but it's nice when you're a customer ;) This Fridays was located about 50 yards from the beach. It was on the third floor of the building and the entire side that we sat on was windowed and facing the ocean. We were able to watch the waves and see the sun go down while eating a small feast. It was great.

Next, we headed back to the beach to just relax, digest and take photos. We walked around for a while and then headed out for some late night drinks.


Thursday, our one full day at the beach, was busy. We woke up, grabbed a quick lunch and headed straight to the beach.


I spent a lot of the day in the water getting pounded by waves and the rest of it resting under an umbrella. It was the first full day I've had at the beach in a long time and exactly what I needed to lose what little bit of stress I had left at this point.

After the beach, we got dressed up and went to the greatest buffet I've ever been to. They had everything, seafood, Korean food, Japanese sushi chefs, Mexican food. I tried a little of everything and ate about 5 plates of crab legs. This was basically the end of the night for us.


Afterwards, we just relaxed and watched James Bond: Casino Royale back at the hotel.

Friday was our last day of vacation. We went to the beach. Some of our other friends were in Busan at the same time as us, but we hadn't been able to meet them so it was a pleasant surprise when we happened to run into them at Starbucks. That was basically the end of it all. We talked to the a bit, walked on the boardwalk, took some pictures and then took another 6 hour train ride back to Seoul.


We arrived back in Seoul around 9pm on Friday night. It was nice to have Saturday and Sunday to relax before heading back to work. Overall, it was a great vacation. We both had a fantastic time.

Vacation Part 2 - Gyeong-Ju

We left the Bang household around 3pm on Sunday for another 6 hours of travel. We were on our way to Gyeong-Ju, the capital of the Silla Empire. Silla was one of the 3 Kingdoms of the Korean Peninsula that existed before they were united into Korea itself. This was about 1500 years ago. This part of the trip was definitely to satisfy the history dork in me.

We spent all day Monday walking around Gyeong-Ju. The landscape is covered with small, awkward hills. In reality, each of these hills is a tomb. A burial chamber would be built partially underground. The casket would be placed in the chamber. Then, the tomb would be covered with a large pile of rocks, and covered in soil so grass could grow. We spent the first part of our day visiting Tumuli Park, a main center of ancient tombs. There was even a tomb that we could enter.

The park also had a small pond filled with carp. This is where the first feeding of the day took place. No, we didn't eat the carp. Trash fed the fish. Apparently, she always wanted to feed fish at a place like this, but her mom would never spend the money for a bag of food. Throughout the day, we bought 6 bags of fish food, and Trash had a blast. It was fun to watch.

After the park, we did some more site seeing. We visited the oldest star observatory in East Asia, walked past many, many tombs and saw fields full of wild, Asian flowers. It was a great time. Plus, we rented a bicycle-powered carriage to cruise around it. Then we headed to Anapji Pond. This was a gathering place for kings and the wealthiest land lords of the day. It survived for about 700 years and was destroyed by the Japanese in the 16th century. It has been partially reconstructed and is beautiful but is nowhere near it's original glory. Many of the building materials used were actually the original building materials which were salvaged from the lake and restored for construction. They also have many artifacts on display that were found in the lake as well. We spent about two hours walking around taking pictures. Trash fed more fish too. There were SO MANY fish. It was such a good time.

We rounded out the day of Korean History with dinner at McDonald's. This might sound strange, but it was perfect. The food tasted great after a long day, and I've never had more fun at McDonald's (except maybe my 2nd grade birthday party).

We woke up late on Tuesday. Walking around all day Monday was exhausting. We had planned to get up early to go hiking and then head to the National Museum in the late afternoon. When we got up, we decided to do the hiking and go to the museum if we had time at night, which we didn't. The mountain was beautiful. It was very scenic, covered with ancient pagodas and Buddhist carvings. Some of them dated as far back as the 8th century.

At the top of the mountain was a small temple. The monk who lives there was gone for the day, but two caretakers were still there. They were very kind. They told us how to get to some of the nearby landmarks and let us drop our bags at the house. Plus, when we came back for our things, they had fresh, cold water and watermelon waiting for us. The lady sat and talked with Trash for about 20 minutes while we savored the much needed snack.

It was wonderful to be treated so nicely. It was also a good conversation starter for the hike down the mountain. It made me wonder why so many Christians see me, a guy with long hair and tattoos, and become judgmental, but a Buddhist woman sees a foreign guy walk out of the woods, sweaty and nasty, and offers me directions, water and food. Sometimes, the Buddhists I meet here seem to be better models of Christ than the Christians I meet.

The mountain was the end of our adventurous outings in Gyeong-Ju. After the hiking, we went back to our hotel, had a HUGE Korean dinner, watched a movie and relaxed. The next day, we headed out for a short 45 minute bus ride to Busan, the final stop on our journey.

Vacation Part 1 - Gangneung

Trash and I left Friday, July 25th at 5pm on a train Eastbound for Gangneung. Gangneung is a town on the East Coast of Korea. It's famous for it's rocky beaches and sunrises. We didn't catch a sunrise, but did see the beauty of the beaches. We spent about 6 hours on the train. We were staying with Bang (the lead guitar player in Trash's band), his wife, son and father at their apartment. It was a nice little place. Bang didn't show up until Saturday night (he lives/works in Seoul) so we spent our first night/day with his family.

First of all, his son, Jee-oh (not sure how it's spelled when Romanized) is adorable. It took him about an hour to warm up to Trash and me, but geez he was fun. Hae-Seon, Bang's wife, was very hospitable, and after spending just a little time with Bang's dad, it was obvious why Bang is such a kind, giving person. He learned it from his father. After we got to their house, Hae-Seon ordered some food, and we just spent the night hanging out at the house. It was a little uncomfortable for me at first because Hae-Seon and Bang's father (like Bang) don't speak any English. You get used to that over here though. We just ate, watched tv and played with Jee-oh. It was a relaxing night.

We woke up Saturday morning to Hae-Seon making a big, Korean breakfast for us. It was pretty good. Then, Bang's father spent the day driving us around Gangneung. Our first stop was the Edison museum. That's right folks. The first stop on my first Korean vacation was a museum about an American inventor ;) It was a pretty cool placed. They have the world's biggest collection of gramophones, phonographs, and record players. They also have rooms full of Edison's inventions. It was pretty cool.

After that, we checked out the coast. It was beautiful. Amazingly, this area is famous as one of the only places where the Korean War did not travel. It's located closer to the DMZ than Seoul, only a few miles away. However, the General in charge of the North Korean military was from Gangneung. He ordered that the area not be touched. This order was followed so closely that in its three-year duration, the people of Gangneung never even knew there was a war.

The other thing Gangneung is famous for is it's pseudo-invasions in the 1990's. In 1996 and 1998 North Korean submarines were found off the coast of Gangneung. In 1996, a taxi driver was spending his early morning hours on the beach (cheating on his wife) and noticed the sub offshore. It had traveled for less that 30 mins from North Korea to South Korea and broken down just off the coast. The Korean military captured the sub and its crew. A little while later, the crew escaped and attempted to make their way back to the North. None made it, and only one crew member survived to be taken back into custody.

All that leads to part two of our day. We went to see a retired South Korean battleship and walk through the captured North Korean submarine. I know that submarines are not known for being roomy and luxurious, but the North Koreans do have a lot to learn about design. This sub was unbelievably small and cramped. I couldn't believe it.

The Famous North Korean Sub

Trash Captaining the Battleship

Just for Fun

After seeing the sub and battleship, we went to a small unification museum and then lunch. Bang's father bought us haebap. Basically, it was a bowl of rice, mixed vegetables, raw fish, sesame seeds and spicy sauce. It was delicious.

Haebap

By this time, it was late in the afternoon, and we went home to meet Bang. We went grocery shopping, and Hae-Seon made a great dinner at home. We watched Jaws and just hung out for a while.

Sunday morning, I made an American breakfast feast for everyone...farmer's omelet, bacon, hash browns, french toast and orange juice. It was delicious and felt good to do something nice, even if small, for Bang and his family. After breakfast, we drove around, checked out the beach, saw a small lighthouse and got coffee. Then we went to the bus station and said our farewells.

Overall, it was a relaxing and enjoyable start to vacation. Bang and his family treated us so well. It was a stress-free two days that Trash and I really appreciated.

Me, Trash, Jee-oh, Hae-Seon, Bang